


i'll be the dangerous ledge, you be the parachute

by sultrysweet



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Carter is the darling glue that sticks these two together, F/F, Family Feels, Flirting, Fluff, Hogwarts AU, Love Potion/Spell, Romance, Secret Crush, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Yule, bisexual cat grant, mentions of Cat's various past relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-02-09 15:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12891147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sultrysweet/pseuds/sultrysweet
Summary: She doesn't see it coming. Cat Grant is only getting used to her son starting at Hogwarts when she meets Kara, and everything spirals from there. She's resistant and possibly in denial about what's transpiring, but it doesn't keep her life from intersecting with Kara's. Not by a long shot.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hephakis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hephakis/gifts).



> I took a few liberties with the prompt that I hope still make this fic enjoyable. I also tried to think of a way to keep this a oneshot when I first received the prompt, but that didn't happen. Oops. XD 
> 
> Rated T for now, but that might change with later chapters depending on how far I decide to take this. I will be adding to this story as I go along, so bear with me. I wanted to finish this before the deadline, but as a multichapter fic and suddenly getting a new job in a new city it just wasn't possible.

One false step on a moving staircase and the usually unflappable, impeccable Cat Grant stumbles. She gasps as she nearly falls over the edge, but she’s pulled back with a quick yank and falls instead into the arms of a sunny blonde. Strong arms encircle her while Cat’s own are trapped between their bodies, her wrists pressed against the stranger’s pillow-y chest. She’s wrapped in the arms of a woman, a woman who’s taller and apparently physically firmer than herself.

She exhales almost reverently as she tilts her head back and looks into striking blue eyes beneath somewhat thick, brown framed glasses. She’d be impressed by the woman’s beauty and sharp reflexes if she wasn’t just a little embarrassed by her near plummet and even more angered by the rough handling. She huffs and pushes the blonde away with both hands pressed to the other woman’s chest. She narrows her eyes and glares at her mystery helper as the younger blonde trips over a few steps, heading toward the lower end of the staircase, and steadies herself with her free hand on the railing.

“Most people say thank you,” the woman says. Those striking blue eyes are wider, shocked and maybe fearful. Cat supposes the woman—or more accurately _girl_ —has a right to look that way when Cat had almost pushed her to severe injury or even her death.

Cat rolls her eyes and doesn’t say sorry, although she does feel a tinge of remorse. “Forgive me if I don’t appreciate being smothered by a stranger.” There. At least she’d asked for forgiveness. It’s as close to an apology as she’s ever given, but she’s never seen the girl before today and doubts the younger blonde will understand the significance of that.

“I just saved your life!”

“That’s debatable,” she replies just as the staircase stops. She starts to climb up the last two steps again and unsteadily reaches her desired floor on a broken heel, the reason for her stumble and chance meeting with the other woman.

“What? How is that debatable?” The woman follows her onto the floor and the stairs start to move again, which wouldn’t have been a problem if that hadn’t meant she’s stuck with the woman until another set of stairs moves back in their direction.

Cat sighs, but walks down the corridor to her office. She ignores the girl while she crosses the room to sit at her large desk. It’s covered in neatly stacked piles of paper and books, but there’s still a specific space in the center of it all that remains clear for current tasks. Her current task in that moment is to grab her most expensive, and noticeably favored, pen and scribble out a fondly worded summons that she slips into an emerald envelope and sends off with her brown and white barred owl.

The owl flies past the younger blonde’s head on its way out and draws Cat’s attention back to the woman. She stares for a moment before she pulls a paper down from the top of a pile and exchanges her Montblanc for a basic red pen. “If you’re still waiting for a thank you, you’re waiting on the wrong person.”

With her eyes on the first week’s lesson plan she hasn’t had time to finish, she misses whatever look of confusion or frustration probably passes the other blonde’s face. Despite appearances, however, she’s still partially paying attention to the girl when she unhappily deduces, “You don’t say sorry, even if you almost pushed someone—who was only trying to help, by the way—down the stairs and you don’t say thank you for an act of kindness.”

“Are you asking me to confirm that for you or are you just talking to yourself? Because you can’t possibly expect me to want to hear you tell me what I already know about myself. If that’s the case, you’re definitely not Ravenclaw.”

“You say that like the Houses are part of a class system. Ravenclaw isn’t superior to the other houses.”

“Of course not. If that were true, I’d be calling myself inferior just because I chose to belong to Slytherin. But we both know Ravenclaws are known for their intelligence and you seem to have little.”

“Not that you asked, but I’m Gryffindor.”

“Ah, the hero type. That explains your little rescue. Tell me, are you foolishly brave in your quest for glory or selflessly courageous to a fault?”

“Is that what you think of Gryffindor?”

“As a House? No. I’ve just seen many Gryffindor students over the years fall into either one category or the other. I like to know what kind of person I’m dealing with, especially if I have to spend a significant amount of time with them.” She looks up then. “And since you don’t seem interested in leaving any time soon…” She trails off and, seconds later, an idea pops into her head. “Come to think of it, you might as well make yourself useful. Get me a cup of tea if you plan to hang around. Jasmine tea, preferably.”

“I’m not a student, Miss Grant,” the girl replies with a hint of nervous laughter in her words.

“That’s Professor to you. How do you know my name, anyway? The first day of class isn’t until tomorrow and it’s not like I display a name plate.”

“I’m not a student,” the woman repeats. “And I don’t know you, exactly. I just know _of_ you. You’re kind of famous around here. Not like the Boy Who Lived famous, but…you have a, um, reputation.”

She arches an eyebrow, intrigued. It seems to intimidate the girl, or so Cat assumes from the way the other blonde stutters when she speaks again.

“I-I mean, not-not, like, a _bad_ reputation. Although, some rumors about your time as a student- Not as bad as Tom Riddle, of course! But, uh, I- You- You’re the Queen of All Slytherin!”

Cat tries to contain a smirk at the outburst of word vomit, but the corners of her mouth curl up too much to hide her amusement. “Plenty would beg to differ, but some of the students gave me that moniker after I became the head of my house,” she clarifies.

“Or as Aunt Minerva nicknamed you, Queen of All Trouble,” she hears from a very familiar voice approaching them from somewhere behind her.

She instantly warms, her expression soft before she even turns to face him, and looks fondly at her son with a wide smile. “Hi, sweetie. Are you settling in okay?”

He smiles, but answers, “I’d be settling in better if my mom wasn’t sending a carrier owl to my dorm telling me to stop by her office on the first night.”

Cat tuts and closes the space between them to give him a hug. He squirms in her hold at first, but relaxes and hugs her back with a small sigh of affection and acceptance.

“The only thing worse for peer approval is if Aunt Minerva had sent for me,” Carter tells her as he pulls away.  “Who’s your friend?”

“She’s not a friend,” Cat immediately corrects. “She’s more of a nuisance.”

Carter almost laughs, but the bright look in his eyes instantly fades when he sees the blonde bothering Cat. Then, he stands frozen with a look of either awe or nervousness. Maybe a mix of both, but it’s hard to tell.  

“Wait, _Aunt_ Minerva? Professor McGonagall is your sister?”

Cat whips around to face the former fly on the wall she’s almost forgotten had attached to her like a parasite. “We’re close, not related.”

“Y-yeah,” Carter stutters before he licks his lips and seems to shake himself out of his stunned state. No longer frozen, he apparently finds a new level of confidence and adds, “You don’t occasionally make out with your sister.”

Cat looks over her shoulder and sees him grimace just before shivering with disgust.

“You made out with Professor McGonagall?” The other woman shouts the question with disbelief and maybe a bit of awe.

“She really should stop spiking the eggnog every year,” Cat muses aloud.

“You didn’t need alcohol to make out with Aunt Minerva on your birthday,” Carter smartly points out. “Or to date Olivia when you were students.”

“We did sneak off with a lot of alcohol plenty of times,” Cat informs him, “but you’re right. It wasn’t the basis of our relationship.”

“Whoa. What? You and the Head of Ravenclaw? You were- You two dated?!”

Cat looks smugly at the other blonde and leaves her thinking the best, or possibly worst, of her for her past romances.

Carter oh-so helpfully and matter-of-factly replies, “They technically never really stopped.”

“She’s married,” Cat argues.

“You were, too. Several times. Hasn’t kept you from having intense weekends with Liv over the years.”

“Since when are you so chatty in of front of strangers?”

“She’s not a stranger,” he says. “She’s Kara Danvers. She’s a Quidditch hero! She’s arguably the best Seeker for Gryffindor since Harry Potter, but ‘arguably’ is such an unnecessary qualifier. I think she is. No arguments or doubts or questions about it.”

Kara blushes, but Cat is too stunned by her son to feel good about the younger blonde’s continued nervousness. Cat drapes an arm over Carter’s shoulders and pulls him into her side. She squeezes his shoulder as she takes another look at the woman.

“Thanks,” Kara responds. “I didn’t really do anything special.”

“You were the fastest anyone’s seen in a while. It’s like you had superspeed! It was impressive.”

“Are you going to try out for your house team,” Kara asks.

Carter sulks. “No. I’m not coordinated enough, a-and I’m just a first year. But I’m more of a nerd than an athlete anyway.”

“Well, I…could teach you a few tricks. That is, if your mom agrees and you’re interested in learning?”

“Really?!”

“Uh, no. You don’t need to waste your time or his. He’s not trying out and it’s too dangerous.”

“He doesn’t have to try out to learn a new skill,” Kara argues. “It could be good for him. I can help him with his speed and agility, and that could make out-flying dementors much easier and more successful some day.”

“I don’t want him to have to out-fly dementors.”

“No one _wants_ to have to flee from or fight the things that go bump in the night. I’m just saying it’s a possibility and he can be prepared for it.”

“He’ll already have a flying class that, I’m sure, will be sufficient. Unless the instructor is sub-par.”

“Come on, Mom. This would be additional practice, and Kara is amazing on a broom! She’s the best person to learn from.”

“Even if that’s true, that doesn’t make her qualified to teach.”

“Actually, I am,” Kara says with a smile.

Cat frowns.

“I told you I wasn’t a student,” Kara says. “I’m the new flying instructor.”

“That’s perfect,” Carter exclaims.

Cat’s stomach lurches. How many times will she make a fool of herself in front of this woman? She’s Cat Grant. She doesn’t embarrass easily. She’s much older, and therefore wiser, than Kara. She’s the Head of Slytherin, has broken all the right rules to get what she wanted and needed over the years, and she’s faced off against Grindelwald—with a little help—at his near-worst. She won’t let Kara have the upper hand. She refuses.

“Are you suggesting singling him out?” She releases Carter and stalks toward Kara. “Or will you give him tutoring sessions that show favoritism?”

Kara sputters out a few unfinished thoughts before she breathes out a small laugh. “I can’t win with you, can I?”

Cat says nothing as she stands a much shorter distance away from the girl with a hand on her cocked hip. Her confidence probably comes off as snobbishness, but she needs to assert her authority and establish at least a bit of unattainability. Despite her attempt at a power play, however, Kara smiles.

“I won’t draw any unnecessary attention to you during class,” Kara promises Carter. “And if you do want extra practice time at the end of the school day or on the weekends, my door is always open.”

“Thanks,” Carter says with a smile of his own. Cat watches his cheeks turn pink and, a second later, he averts his eyes like a boy exposed to his crush.

Her eyes widen with the realization and she worries about her son for more reasons than his interest to fly higher and faster than everyday life requires.

“Miss Grant,” Kara catches her attention again. “I’ll see you around.”

Kara says it with a warm and innocent smile just as sunnily as she appeared on the moving staircase, but Cat feels those words as though they were something sharp jammed into any or every part of her body. Even as Kara walks away, Cat knows their second meeting is imminent and she’s dreading it. Just as she hopes Carter is never in serious danger, she hopes the next time they see each other doesn’t reflect as poorly on Cat as their first encounter.

She hasn’t lacked this much presence and command since before she’d received her acceptance letter to Hogwarts and flew across the pond to immerse herself in a world of magic. Even as a muggle, she still stood her ground and proved herself to be even better than most full-blooded wizards. She hadn’t changed many people’s opinions about muggles at Hogwarts, but she’d certainly paved the way for the Hermoine Grangers seeking an education in something they can and will excel at when given the opportunity.

“Why was Kara here?” Carter pulls her attention back into the moment.

“She followed me here like a lost puppy.”

“Followed you from where?”

“The stairs. I don’t even know why she was on those stairs with me. No one else was around when I got on them and if she’s the flying instructor, her office isn’t even in this wing.”

“So, she stalked you?” He doesn’t sound like he believes what he’s asking is true and he looks every bit like her when he raises a suspicious eyebrow.

Cat narrows her eyes at her son and replies, “Yes, she stalked me. Is that really so hard to believe?”

Carter seems to give it a second or two of thought before he admits, “What’s _really_ hard to believe is that you didn’t even recognize her.”

“If she was ever my student, Carter, it’s been years since then and I’ve had far too many to keep track of since I started teaching.”

Carter rolls his eyes, another reminder that he’s not far off from becoming a fully-fledged teenager, and explained, “We saw a handful of her Quidditch matches when she played for the league.”

“Well, it’s not like she was the only one on the field,” Cat breezily replies.

“Mom, you couldn’t stop staring at her.”

“What?” Her eyes widen and her entire body tenses with the fear of how obvious she might have been in such a public place and in front of her own son. She doesn’t remember Kara and certainly doesn’t remember staring, but she’s not a stranger to openly flirting with or checking out someone who catches her attention. “I’m sure I didn’t. The only person I notice at those matches is you with all your enthusiasm and for the simple fact that you’re my world.”

She runs a hand through his curls and warmly smiles at him like the tenderness will encourage or distract him enough to drop this line of conversation. It doesn’t.

“You said, and I quote, ‘A girl could be spoiled by a body like that.’ I’m still not sure what that means, but I _am_ sure I don’t want to know.”

She’s speechless for a few seconds before she decides not to deny what she’s sure, knowing herself, she’s said at some point. “It means this year just got a hell of a lot more complicated.”


	2. Chapter 2

It's as bad as Cat had assumed. Meeting Kara for the second time goes about as smoothly as the first. At least this time, she's not the one tripping over herself. Apparently, it's Kara’s turn to do that. 

The younger blonde arrives in the grand dining hall ten minutes late, in the middle of dinner, and actually trips. Kara stumbles onto the long dais from one of the side entrances and her feet thump on the wood at least three times with her heavy run-steps before she's able to right herself and walk normally to her seat. The girl strides behind two chairs while holding her breath and plastering on what the blonde might hope is a composed smile before taking her place at the table.

As Kara settles in, Cat rolls her eyes and turns her attention to the students. She finds the Ravenclaw table first and watches Carter nod and laugh along with a few housemates sitting near him. She tries not to stare for too long. She doesn’t want Carter to tell her she’s butting in, even though she’s only passively observing from a distance. She manages to watch just long enough to see one of the boys near him address him personally instead of just speaking to the small group as a whole and it brings a smile to Cat’s face.

Satisfied to see Carter potentially making friends, Cat focuses back on the other professors. All of them are having their own conversations on either side of her. She doesn’t bother trying to join any of them, though. She overhears enough for them to bore her, and the only person she can usually stand during community feasts is Olivia Marsdin. Minerva is almost always busy with everyone else and the petty concerns of students to say more than a few words to the older woman, so Olivia is all she has during these large gatherings. But, of course, the Head of Hufflepuff is talking to the Ravenclaw about some hippy peace and love topic when she’s not inquiring about Olivia’s happy marriage.

It’s not that Cat dislikes Olivia’s husband. She doesn’t. She even steamily kissed Olivia in front of him and almost prompted a threesome with her actions, but she doesn’t want to hear about how they spent their summers in inspiring cities across the world together. Cat’s probably the only professor that’s in her fifties and single. It wouldn’t get to her—it usually doesn’t—but everyone on staff seems to think her non-existent love life is an invitation to attempt to encourage her to get out more.

Olivia sees her then and flashes a small, sympathetic smile that allows Cat to welcome a large gulp of the bourbon in her glass. She’s tempted to fake a smile, but decides against it and turns back in McGonagall’s direction. It’s as she sets her drink back down on the table that she sees Kara look to her left and acknowledges Nevel Longbottom, the Head of Gryffindor, sitting beside her. Unfortunately for Cat, that puts her in Kara’s sightline and she doesn't go unnoticed.

Kara’s eyes catch hers almost as soon as the younger woman's head is turned in Nevel’s direction and Cat immediately tenses, even as she holds the other woman’s gaze. She sees Kara’s lips quirk and then the younger professor is waving at her from the other end of the table. When Cat forces a tight smile and doesn't wave back, Kara's smile seems to brighten. It probably means one of two things. One, Kara Danvers thinks Cat's unfriendliness is amusing. Or, two, Kara Danvers naively thinks she can fix Cat's mood with sheer force of will and excessive, puppy-rivaling energy.

Neither option changes Cat's expression. The tight smile fades as she looks out at all the students and actively avoids the temptation to glance over at Kara. It's not difficult until she’s spent several boring minutes listening to professors and students alike fill the room with a steady droll of various conversations. Cat ignores it all for the most part, but then there's heavy laughter coming from the Gryffindors.

Kara has apparently befriended Nevel. Her face is red from all the laughter as she puts a hand on his arm and body language like that makes Cat think the younger blonde is flirting. She grimaces, hoping the other woman really isn't that stupid, and glares at them as though they're both manure stuck to her Manolo Blahniks.

Before she can burn a hole into either of them with the intensity of her glare, McGonagall gives her an equally sharp look. Minerva pulls Cat’s attention from the younger Gyffindors with her arched brow and almost knowing expression as she presses a finger to her temple, knuckles grazing her cheekbone. Cat doesn't feel or show that she’s chastised by the look, but she does furrow her brow. She's seconds away from sticking out her tongue to combat the older woman's disapproving expression, but maintains her composure. It seems to be enough for Minerva and the Headmistress returns to her food with a hint of judgement in her expression and, Cat assumes, a sigh.

Cat smirks just a little in Minerva’s direction and it's the exact wrong thing to do because that also happens to be the exact moment Kara's eyes find hers. Cat’s breath hitches when they make eye contact, but Kara thankfully doesn’t seem to notice. That’s not much of a relief, however, when Kara smiles brightly enough to blush.

The younger woman ducks her head after a couple seconds and looks adorably bashful. It’s sickeningly sweet how innocent and soft the girl appears, and Cat minds herself as much as she can because she knows true trouble when she sees it. And Kara Danvers, for all her tenderness and sunshine, is the worst kind of trouble.

When Kara decides to look up again, her gaze shyly meets Cat’s before the blonde with striking blue eyes waves somewhat coyly at her. Kara continues to look at her for much too long, in Cat’s opinion, but Cat also can’t look away. She’s not sure why she can’t, but she’s starting to drown in seas of blue before she manages to redirect her attention back to the Ravenclaw students' table. It takes more effort than Cat likes, but she’s eventually able to calm her racing heart and find Carter again as he’s in the middle of a conversation, more energetic than the one only a moment ago, with his housemates.

He didn’t notice her earlier, but he almost senses her eyes on him now with the way he turns to her after only seconds of her giving him attention. He shoots her a fond look that says, “Really, Mom?” and she smiles.

He smiles back and Cat softens even more until she recognizes the silent question suddenly in his eyes that gives her no reason and every reason to worry. He doesn’t wait long to look from her to Kara and back again with hopeful and prompting brown eyes. When he tilts his head in Kara’s direction while maintaining eye contact with her, Cat sighs and shakes her head with just a tiny bit of defeat.

Shaking her head means no, but her eyes say she approves of his insistence. She won’t deny him, of course, and she’s sure he knows it. But she won’t give in easily, either.

At least, she’d hoped she wouldn’t, but she does because he urges her with non-verbal communications for almost a full minute after that. If he nods in Kara’s direction one more time, he’ll probably give himself whiplash. He’s also being extremely obvious, so she motions for him to stop and assures him with a look that she’ll concede to his request. He beams in response, but doesn’t look away as he waits impatiently for her to take action.

Cat almost sighs again, doesn’t, and slowly gets up. She looks over at him one last time and sees his expression brighten, which she didn’t think was possible until she saw it. He’s doing a little dance in his seat when she looks forward again and watches where she’s going as she approaches Kara’s seat.

Conversation stops when she reaches the younger blonde and Kara looks up at her with enthralling eyes. Her breath nearly catches in her throat when their eyes meet at that moment, but she maintains composure like she’s always done. Barely, though, because she still has to clear her throat before she speaks and then glances at Nevel with all the authority she can spare. She knows, _knows_ , she’ll lose most of it when she and Kara are left to discuss Carter.

Nevel is easy to intimidate, so he nervously looks away and even decides to vacate his seat after a few seconds of his awkward arm-flailing and nervous hand gestures that mean nothing because he’s speechless. She doesn’t hesitate to take the chair almost as soon as he steps away from it.

Her dress rides up a little when she sits down and exposes even more of her thighs when she crosses her legs. She watches Kara’s eyes drop to her legs with an initial focus on her calves before the younger woman’s lips part and her eyes drift up to stare at partially displayed thighs. Cat smirks to herself while Kara’s distracted, but the smirk fades a moment later when she says, “I’ve given the extra flying lessons some thought.”

Kara doesn’t seem to hear her at first, so Cat rests a hand on her knee to draw some attention and then clears her throat. When Kara’s eyes find hers again, the girl’s cheeks redden for the second time that night.

“Lessons,” Kara repeats with uncertainty. Then, her eyes light up with recognition and she says, “For Carter. Yes. You’ve made your decision?”

Cat tries not to and, successfully doesn’t, laugh at Kara’s stumble. She’s happy to feel more in control, especially when it compliments the power she wields in the situation.

“I have.” She surprises herself when her words come out like a purr, but she doesn’t show it. She takes a second before she speaks again so that her voice is less suggestive given the subject matter. “If it doesn’t interfere with his other classes, he isn’t singled out and you are extremely careful, you can give him private lessons once or twice a week. You can talk to Carter to figure out the best schedule for both of you, but I’ll have final approval. Of everything. Nothing happens without my say so.”

Kara smiles. Her cheeks are still pink, but she’s not nervous or squirming or even checking out Cat anymore. It’s genuine and warm and followed by, “Of course. He’ll be safe with me, Miss Grant.”

Cat narrows her eyes and says, “That sounds like a promise and I don’t like promises.”

Kara frowns and asks, “Why?”

“They’re inevitably broken.” Tone flat and warning made, Cat uncrosses her legs and stands up in one fluid motion before she walks back to her seat. She considers finishing her food, but she isn’t hungry enough to pick at her cooling leftovers. There’s a sinking feeling in her gut about what she’s just agreed to, but it doesn’t have anything to do with her trust in Kara.

Fearful as she is, she checks on Carter yet again and sees him staring hopefully and expectantly at her already. When she nods her confirmation, he immediately dances in his seat with an ecstatic expression bright enough to power a lighthouse.

Cat hides her smile behind her hand as she stifles a laugh. It’s the first time she does it that week, but it’s not the last.

She does it again three days later during Carter’s first extracurricular flying lesson. That time, however, she feels relief as well because she’s just watched her son narrowly complete an abrupt stop and pull up to avoid crashing into the Quidditch field. Kara’s smiling and praising Carter while Carter looks breathless and amazed and happy. Cat’s proud of him for succeeding, pleased that he’s enjoying himself and thankful that he’s safe as almost-promised by Kara despite almost faceplanting in the grass. But he’s hovering above the field with Kara high enough that he’s level with the surrounding stands and he’s _happy_. She doesn’t trust Kara any more than when they first met, doesn’t think one lesson without a scratch on Carter proves the flying instructor will continue to keep him safe, but Cat’s comfortable enough after what she’s seen that she doesn’t feel compelled to criticize just to prevent Kara from thinking she actually approves.

It doesn’t bite her in the ass. At first.

The lessons go on without incident for a couple weeks. Cat stops watching after the first twenty minutes the next time Carter has a lesson and, a few lessons after that, she stops watching the sessions altogether once she ensures Carter’s on time and getting the hang of whatever new thing Kara’s teaching him that day. The first time she leaves after only the first few minutes of a lesson, she worries it’ll allow Carter to pull far enough away from her that they’ll stop communicating and quickly finds out it has the opposite effect.

Carter always tells her what he’s learned as soon as they both have time to catch up. He’s animated when he talks about what he’s accomplishing and how Kara encourages him and makes games out of the more technical aspects. It’s good for him and it’s good for Cat’s relationship with him. But, of course, nothing goes well for long and everything falls apart after a particular lesson in the third week when chaos ensues with Carter right in the middle of it.

It happens on a gray day, and that alone should have been enough for Cat to call off the flying session. She’s teaching a transfiguration class for third years, not too far into her lecture, when she sees a familiar face in the open doorway. Kara’s leaning against the frame with her arms crossed over her chest and a small smile on her face as she watches the class—or, more accurately, Cat—with rapt attention.

Cat’s lips quirk in amusement without her consent, but she expertly conceals any true emotion and struts to the side of her desk. There, she cocks a hip and challenges, “It seems we have a surprise guest today, class. Care to join us, Professor Danvers?”

Kara’s eyes nearly pop of her head and the girl immediately pushes off the doorframe. She looks like a spooked horse or a stunned deer in headlights, which Cat thoroughly enjoys. Kara stutters out a few almost-words while she vigorously shakes her head.

Before the younger blonde backs away, Cat smirks and goes in for the kill. “I could use some assistance for my next demonstration. Since you’re here, why don’t you assist me?”

“I-I’m flattered, Miss Grant. I really am, but I should- I should go.”

Cat arches a brow and settles on the edge of the desk before she crooks a finger and beckons the other woman to her. Although using magic is a guarantee, she allows Kara to make the decision for herself whether to stay or go. She isn’t disappointed when, seconds later, Kara chooses to stay.

Cat’s cheeks hurt from the force of her widened smirk as she watches Kara shuffle into the classroom. Her eyes wander from averted blue eyes to clenched fists that grip the sides of pant legs during Kara’s approach. With Kara’s robe open and pushed slightly behind her as she walks, everyone sees the nervous habit, and some might even see the coffee stain on the younger blonde’s blouse. Cat certainly does.

Kara quietly clears her throat and adjusts her glasses when she stops beside Cat, but it takes a few seconds of silence before Kara hesitantly glances up at her.

“Perfect.” Cat slides of the desk and gives a little spring in her step after she lands. She wants to play with her food before she devours it. “Alright, everyone. It’s time to learn something a little more complex than what you’re used to, and because of that you have to proceed with extreme caution.”

Cat has the best and only view of Kara’s eyes widening in fear. Her smirk fades just a little and she takes small pity on the girl who’s unknowingly agreed to be a test subject.

“Now, I’m going to perform this spell on the gracious Professor Danvers, but the rest of you will focus on transforming your teapots into a small animal of your choosing. Human transfiguration, for those of who don’t know, is reserved for sixth years and above due to its complexity. So, if I see any of you trying this on each other at any point, or even on Professor Danvers, you will be expelled. Understood?”

The class nods along with eyes as wide as Kara’s. Satisfied, Cat gives a curt nod as well and begins. She produces her wand from her robe pocket and uses her free hand to nudge Kara back a few steps. She moves forward and keeps an even, arms-length distance between them until they’re a safe distance from the desk before she stops them.

“Are you ready?”

Kara licks her lips and, for a fleeting moment, Cat thinks she sees blue eyes dart down to her mouth before the younger woman gives her consent.

Cat takes a deep breath, steadies herself and focuses on the spell. A few tapping gestures like the tick of a metronome and an incantation later, Kara shrinks into a Thunderbird. The class erupts in “ooh”s and “ahh”s and a few in the back stand up and lean over their desks for a better look at the moderately sized bird that sits patiently in front of them.

“This is a Thunderbird,” Cat explains. “It’s specific to Ilvermorny.”

“That’s the U.S. school for witches and wizards, isn’t it?” One of her female students in the back asks the question, looking bewildered.

“Yes,” Cat answers. “I thought this animal was an appropriate choice given that both Professor Danvers and I are from the States. I also think it’s appropriate given that Professor Danvers is our flying instructor.”

Kara cranes her neck and seems to survey the room. It’s the only warning before she spreads her wings and takes flight. The first flap of her wings blows Cat’s hair back and the gust of wind sends a chill down the older woman’s spine.

Enamored, the class watches with blissful and disbelieving expressions. The students still sitting finally stand and all of them either spin around or turn their heads again and again to watch Kara soar around the room.

Cat sighs, but she’s not all that upset. She even smiles when she shakes her head and admires the way Kara glides. The ceiling and every corner of the room threaten white wingtips when Kara angles her body for her turns, but she effortlessly escapes collision every time. It makes Cat wonder if the other woman has ever become any type of bird prior to this class.

She continues to stare for almost a minute more and then comes back to herself. “If you’re done impressing the class, I’d like to continue with my lecture before allowing the students to perform their own transfigurations.”

At first, Kara doesn’t respond and only continues to circle the room.

“Professor Danvers,” she warns as she cocks her hip and arches a brow. It’s her best intimidation technique with Carter and might work with the younger blonde if Cat’s effortless ability to make the girl blush is demonstration enough of the older blonde’s ability to intimidate her. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

Kara squawks and swoops low enough to scare Cat when she barrels toward her at full speed. Kara pulls back and turns at the last second, another collision avoided, but Cat doesn’t like being disobeyed or threatened.

“ _Kiera!_ ” She shrieks loud enough to compete with the sounds the other blonde is capable of in her new form and, although the authority would make any Thunderbird combative, it works on Kara.

Kara swoops down again and lands in front of a window. She ruffles her feathers, but turns away from the class to look out at the view of the schoolgrounds. She stands regally and doesn’t make another sound, so Cat smiles and proceeds with her lesson.

Most of the students have very little success the first time around when she allows them to start practicing on their teapots, so she makes a few corrections for those that have only animated their teapot’s arm instead of transforming the entire item.

Kara squawks in the middle of Cat’s continued corrections a few minutes later and reminds the class of her newly annoying presence again, but something’s different this time. Cat notices immediately and it’s the only thing that keeps her from threatening to make soup out of the transformed professor. After another alarming squawk, Kara extends her wings as if in preparation for perceived danger. When Cat steps around her desk and squints to see beyond Kara’s fluttering wings, her eyes find a figure zipping around on a broom in the distance.

She sighs heavily. A student flying around campus without an instructor calls for disciplinary action Cat feels too busy yet responsible for imposing at that moment.

And then her heart stops.

For a second, she’s completely frozen where she stands at the window beside Kara when she recognizes the student on the broom. She stops breathing when her heart skips a beat and then drops low in her gut just as she catches sight of a familiar, round object speedily and accurately following the boy.

“Carter.”

She doesn’t think, just acts. Maternal instinct takes over and she grabs her own broom from against the wall where it leans next to the coat room door between the windows and her desk. She turns to the class again as she’s about to run from it and sees just as easily as she hears Kara tap aggressively on the window with her temporary beak.

Cat lacks the proper focus to safely transform Kara back into human form while her mind reels with all the severe possibilities of what could happen to her son, so she casts a simple and quick spell to open the window. Kara flies out of it without hesitation and Cat sternly tells the class not to leave or they’ll face unwanted consequences for their insubordination.

Cat climbs onto the window ledge then and hurries after Kara on her broom. Just as her feet leave the wooden ledge and she flies off in Carter’s direction, she hears Kara shriek and looks up.

Kara dips lower for a sharper angle that allows her to gain speed and approach Carter faster as he’s chased by a bludger and Cat barely holds herself together as she increases her own speed the same way as Kara. Seconds later, she falters a little on her broom when she hears Carter’s startled yelps and watches him try to dodge and out-fly the escaped bludger. Then, she hears some shouts from the field below and sees two of Carter’s friends on the ground trying to call him back to the wide-open equipment chest sitting in front of them. She glares at them, but they’re too far away to understand the magnitude of trouble they’re in. They do see her, though, and that at least gets them to shut up. They don’t run away either, which is better for them because Cat would be tempted to perform all kinds of magic on them to embarrass them for the rest of the year or longer if they’d abandoned Carter to save their own asses.

Another shout from Carter, followed by another shriek from Kara, pulls her attention back to her son as he starts to lose his balance after a nasty turn. She leans in closer to her broom, her chest almost pressed to the gnarled wood, and speeds off to either grab him or redirect the bludger’s focus. She isn’t sure of which until she reaches him as he’s about to fall off his broom and she swoops in to catch him before he does more than lean heavily over one side of it. In the same instant, she hears a higher pitched cry from Kara very close to her ear while Carter readjusts on his broom.

Cat looks over and sees Kara blocking the bludger from moving any closer, shielding Cat and Carter from the enchanted object. In the process, Kara squawks and shrieks several more times because shielding them means taking the hits meant for Carter.

“Mom!” Hearing his voice jolts Cat from her awestruck moment and she takes Carter’s hand before diving toward the Quidditch field. She squeezes his hand, aims for the equipment chest and doesn’t look back. She assumes, hopes, pleads desperately with the universe that the bludger follows just close enough behind them to be lured back into the chest.

It does.

Just before she and Carter can make impact with the chest, she lets go of his hand and turns into Carter's side while sharply pulling up. Their broomsticks clash, but she’s able to wrap her arm around his waist and redirect them so they can make a steep ascent and flee from the bludger.

There’s a solid thunk below them almost as soon as they change directions. She waits until she hears one of Carter’s friends yell, “It’s safe now” before slowing down and carefully returning to the ground. She only relaxes once she and Carter have landed and are off their brooms, both feet firmly planted in the soft and slightly dewy grass.

During the one moment of relief she allows herself, before her soon approaching anger can overwhelm her, she transforms Kara where the younger woman’s perched on top of the recently closed equipment chest. Once the transformation’s complete, Kara slumps forward with a grimace and braces herself with both hands gripping tightly to the front edge of the chest lid. She remains seated on top of it, even as the bludger continues to bang against the inside of the chest. Kara sluggishly snaps the locks into place to seal it shut a moment later, looking tired and pained and showing no outward signs of the beating with her robe and clothes covering the places the bludger hit.

“Are you okay?” Carter steps toward Kara as he asks and the relief immediately leaves Cat’s body like the snapping of a rubber band.

“What the hell were doing?!”

Carter glances at her and opens his mouth, presumably to answer the question, when Carter’s friends talk over him before he can say a single word.

“He told us about the tricks he knew,” the sandy blond boy with a spattering of freckles on his face says first.

“We wanted to see,” the dark-haired boy quickly adds.

“And then we wanted to see if he’d be good enough for the team,” the blond explains.

“Like a prodigy.”

“Like Harry Potter.”

“I’m sorry,” Carter suddenly and sincerely says.

Cat turns to him again only to see his apology directed at Kara as the other blonde shakily stands up. That’s when Cat notices the girl’s wane expression and how she delicately holds her ribs. She lets go of her anger when faced with the sight and says, “Thirty points will be taken from Ravenclaw and all of you will have a weeks’ detention. Understood?”

“Yes, Miss Grant,” the boys reply in sync while Carter is silent and continues to focus on Kara.

“You’re dismissed,” she tells his friends.

They scamper off in record time and only then does Cat give her full attention to Kara. She moves closer to the other woman and asks, “What’s wrong?”

Kara shakes her head in response and tries to smile, but only manages to wince. “Just a little banged up. I’ll be fine. Nothing a day of bedrest can’t help.” Kara hisses seconds later when Carter touches her arm to help the flying instructor and it’s all the confirmation Cat needs.

She gently guides Carter aside and just as gently slips off Kara’s robe to reveal bruising on the girl’s bicep and forearm. She assesses the damage with displeasure and carefully urges Kara’s elbow away from her side. She tenses when Kara hisses again and curls in on herself. She releases Kara’s arm and places a hand on the woman’s upper back while clasping the other around the hem of Kara’s shirt.

“May I?”

Kara nods and a split second later, Cat lifts the shift to inspect for other injuries. It isn’t long before she sees purpling flesh from Kara’s hip to her ribs and along her back.

Cat resists, with a bit of effort on her part, from sympathetically hissing in response and offers, “I’ll get you some ice for that. Carter, go back to your dorm. We’ll talk more about your punishment later.”

Carter looks seconds away from crying, but nods his agreement before he quietly apologizes to Kara again. He almost chokes on the words as his lips quiver and the sound of his impending tears influence his speech.

“Really, Miss Grant. I’m fine,” Kara says as Carter walks away.

“This is not up for discussion,” she insists. “Come on, ‘ _super_ girl.’ The time for heroics is over." 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I didn't mention before, but feel like I should is that I haven't gone too deep into the Potterverse and might get some details wrong. Hopefully that's not the case because I try to ask a friend for help when I think something I write might not fit the specifics of the world of Hogwarts. There's still a chance, though, that I'll mess something up, so bear with me. If I do, I really hope it doesn't take anyone out of the story, at least not too much.
> 
> Happy Holidays! Enjoy another chapter and maybe give me your thoughts in the comments? :)

She dismisses her class as soon as she and Kara return to the room and she sends her owl to Minerva shortly after that to explain what’s happened. Unbothered and alone, Cat directs Kara to the couch in the back corner behind her desk that’s private and hidden just out view. She then goes into the storage closet and grabs a couple unfrozen ice packs she instantly cools with a spell. If the building wasn’t so old, she’d keep a mini-fridge in the room, but the way they keep the lights on is either torch lighting or _lumos_ spells at Hogwarts.

Once Cat chills the ice packs, she joins Kara on the couch and hands them over. She waits as Kara lifts her shirt and applies one to her ribs with gritted teeth before Cat asks, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you do it? Go after Carter and fly between him and the bludger?”

Kara cringes as the younger woman places the second ice pack on her shoulder blade and replies, “I just reacted. I saw him losing control on his broom and being chased and I couldn’t let anything happen to him. It was—”

“Instinct,” Cat supplies for her in a state of awe.

Kara nods, but looks confused.

“You instinctively protected my son at your own expense and as a bird, no less.”

“I would never let anything happen to him,” Kara firmly repeats. “He’s…special. I know I said I wouldn’t single him out, and in class I don’t, but…he’s smart and determined and I care about him. I also told you I’d keep him safe. I keep my promises, even if what I said wasn’t one explicitly.”

Cat stares into bold and sure blue eyes that convey so much feeling and sincerity. She’s baffled and impressed. Kara’s found a tether to her heart and pulled, and the younger professor doesn’t even seem to know it.

Yet.

Cat needs to be careful, but Kara seems intent on making it difficult.

She clears her throat and breaks eye contact before sliding back on the couch and making herself comfortable. “Carter’s not going to have private lessons for at least a week after this incident. After that, when the punishment is over, you’ll need to walk him back to my classroom after each lesson. Consider it a probation period.”

“Understandable.” Kara keeps her eyes down, focuses on her own lap, as she speaks. She looks haunted, like Cat’s words cut her deep.

“This isn’t about you not watching him closer. He’s eleven and he made a poor decision today. It’s not your fault.”

“I should have been more careful,” Kara insists.

Cat sighs. “I appreciate you beating yourself up over this, but the bludger already did that for you. As much as I want to, because it would make things so much easier, I don’t blame you for what happened.”

“Shouldn’t you?”

“Kara, not even Carter’s own father has done anything like that for him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good father, but… _no one_ has taken a bludger for my son except me. Figuratively speaking, of course. This is the first bludger related incident to happen to him.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Kara frowns. “Please tell me you left his father and not the other way around.”

Cat almost laughs and then says, “He filed for divorce, but I left the relationship long before that. That’s why he filed, actually.”

“You’re better off.”

That time Cat does laugh. “Most would beg to differ.”

Kara shakes her head and replies, “You’re Cat Grant. You deserve the best, and someone not willing to do anything and everything for your son is not the best.”

She feels another tug at her heartstring and gulps. Trouble. The worst kind.

“Well, you’re welcome to stay here and rest for a while. I have to find Olivia and tell her to keep a closer eye on Carter.”

“Olivia your ex?” Kara smiles as she speaks, the seriousness and heavy emotions from seconds ago lightened by the woman’s amused expression.

Cat narrows her eyes.

“I still can’t get over that. It definitely explains a lot,” Kara adds.

“What exactly does it explain?”

“You probably don’t remember, but I did take your class not too long ago. One day, she dropped by the classroom. I saw this look in her eyes. Yours, too. It was…playful, but there was more. I couldn’t figure out how to describe it other than that. Until this year.”

“We haven’t been together, as a couple, since graduation. Whatever you saw—”

“Love,” Kara interjects.

“It’s complicated, but we weren’t— _aren’t_ —together. She’s never cheated on her husband.”

“Not from lack of trying on your part?”

Cat scoffs. “You think I tried to get her to cheat on him?”

“No, but you and Carter make it sound like there might have been some almosts.”

She takes a deep breath and fidgets. She never fidgets, but Kara’s close to something Cat tries to ignore. “You’re not my therapist and I have an errand to run,” she says while she stands. “Stay as long as you need. The class I dismissed was my last for the day.”

She makes it halfway through the room when she hears Kara say, “Thank you.” Cat falters and almost stops completely on her way to the door, but manages to keep going until she’s out of sight. She leans back against the wall outside the room and closes her eyes before she quietly exhales, “Oh, Kara.” Another deep breath later and she’s off to torture herself with another weakness of hers.

* * *

She doesn’t see much of Kara the rest of the week, but she sees much more of the younger woman when Carter’s temporary ban from the Quidditch field outside of class is lifted. While most of his punishment has been served, Cat still won’t risk leaving him alone after private lessons. That’s how she gets Kara to start bringing him by her classroom after each one.

The first day goes better than expected given their short but accident-prone history. No one trips or stumbles and no one’s near death or severe injury, which is all Cat thinks she can ask for at this point.

Kara arrives to her empty classroom with Carter a few minutes earlier than expected. He fusses when Cat checks him for cuts or bruises and she only lets him go when she confirms for herself he’s unharmed.

“We didn’t fly higher than waist-height today,” Kara assures her with a gentle smile and a hand on Carter’s shoulder.

He looks dejected, disappointed, and she wonders if he’ll want to, or will, find a way to blame her for it.

“Thank you,” she replies while keeping her eyes on Carter. She only spares the other blonde a glance in acknowledgement. That is until Kara sets a travel cup on her desk.

Cat looks up into Kara’s eyes. She arches a brow and teases her slightly parted lips with a subtle swipe of her tongue just behind her teeth.

“Is that for me or are you just leaving your trash for me to discard?”

Kara smiles and says, “It’s for you. I had a feeling you might be working on something, so I grabbed a latte in case you needed extra energy or just wanted a warm drink.”

Cat hums semi-appreciatively, a little skeptically, and takes the cup without breaking eye contact. Her eyes drop to the lid when she brings the drink to her lips seconds later and sips carefully at the luke warm—at best—caffeine. She scrunches up her nose and pulls the drink away with displeasure. “That isn’t nearly hot enough and there’s whole milk in it.”

“Is there something wrong with whole milk?”

“Yes,” she replies as she abandons the latte on her desk. “Whole milk hasn’t passed my lips since I rode a bicycle with streamers on the handle.”

She hears a half-laugh, half-scoff and looks over to see her son shift from foot to foot with a smile on his face. He looks at the floor, but Cat doesn’t doubt for a second he hadn’t rolled his eyes before he’d attracted her attention. He’s too much like her for his own good at times.

“She didn’t need to buy you a latte at all,” Carter unnecessarily tells her with a hint of a smirk.

“It’s fine,” Kara says, and that’s the last thing she should admit to Cat because it makes the younger woman look like a pushover. Then, Kara surprises her and adds, “It was supposed to be for me, but I walked off with the wrong order.”

Carter didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to because Cat sees mirth in his eyes and a wider smirk that leaves her with the impression Kara’s lying.

Cat masks her own smile at the near confirmation from Carter and inwardly applauds Kara’s attempt at insouciance. “Well, maybe next time you’ll get me something non-fat with no foam. Bulletproof coffee is best when I need to stay focused, for future reference.”

Kara chuckles. “Maybe next time there won’t be any coffee. Problem solved.”

“Told you,” Carter mumbles.

“You, young man, should start your homework. Olivia will be here within the hour to escort you back to the dorms.” Cat catches the eyeroll that time and she reminds him, “You’re the one who willingly went back onto that field. Until I can trust that something like that won’t happen again, you’re going to have daily chaperones.”

“I know,” he sulked as he slumped into the nearest desk chair. “I get it and it’s fair. Doesn’t mean I like it.”

“And you thought your mom sending an owl for you on the first night was socially damaging,” Kara teases.

Carter glares, but Kara just keeps smiling brightly and ruffles his hair a bit. He blushes and ducks his head while he smooths out the few kinks Kara’s created.

“I think I’ll…leave you to your paperwork, Miss Grant. Carter, see you in class tomorrow. Great job today, even if it seemed boring.”

“It might have been less exciting than even a regular class, but I’m just glad to still have private lessons.”

Kara smiles fondly at him and says, “I’m happy to teach you. You’re an amazingly fast learner and my best student yet. You actually listen and absorb. A quality I’m sure you don’t get from your mom.”

Cat balks, shows her shock and slight offense for a moment, before she composes herself. “Brazen looks good on you, _Kiera_ ,” she all but purrs as she slowly looks over the younger blonde from head to toe.

Kara grins and looks absolutely delicious when she does.

Cat hides a grin of her own by strategically pursing her lips.

They hold each other’s gaze just a little longer before Kara quietly says, “Bye” and waves to Carter on her way out. She slows down when she reaches the door and then gives Cat a softer, coyer look over her shoulder.

Not even a minute after she’s gone, Carter happily speaks up to tell her, “I think she likes you.”

Cat squints at him and shakes her head.

“I think you like her, too,” he adds.

She scoffs, rolls her eyes, waves him off like the statement isn’t true or worth indulging in any way. She doesn’t look at him for a few seconds, looks off at the bookcase against the wall, and turns back after he’s silent for the short interval. He’s smiling down at his notebook and most likely not paying any attention to the textbook he seems to be failing to take notes from, and Cat shakes her head again. She doesn’t hide her smile that time, but Carter doesn’t notice because he only looks up after the smile fades.

“So, are you going to drink that?” Carter looks at the cup with a spark of hope and then meets her eyes. “Seems like a waste, especially when there are so many people all over the world starving every day.”

She plasters on a not-quite smile and replies, “Nice try. You’re not having any caffeine while your brain and body are still developing.”

Carter sighs, but he knows better. He gets over it before he’s ever bothered by her refusal. He goes back to his work and she considers going back to hers, but the subpar latte distracts her.

She stares at it a little too long and, when she finally tears her eyes away from it, Carter’s watching her with a spreading smile. “Oh, please,” she drawls while she rolls her eyes. She grabs the cup to dump it in the trash, but Carter apparently thinks it belongs elsewhere.

“I wonder if it would make me look cooler or embarrass me more,” he says with a look of concentration.

“What?”

Carter makes eye contact with her and almost keeps a straight face when he answers, “Having two moms.”

Cat spills the syrupy, overly sweet drink that she just knows would be to Kara’s liking, despite the girl’s earlier claims, all over her blouse. It seeps through to her bra and—of course—doesn’t burn, but it does stain and it’s sticky.

Carter titters and tries to hide it behind his hand when she looks at him, but it’s pointless and he gives up almost as soon as he raises his hand to his mouth.

Cat sighs and swiftly tosses the now mostly empty travel cup in the trash.

“I hope you’re happy.”

He laughs a little more and replies, “That was definitely not a waste of a latte.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took longer than I'd hoped. There's also a detail issue that's been pointed out to me. I think I said Carter is fourteen and that he's a first year, but first year students are usually about eleven. I knew that when I started this fic, but my brain kept thinking about his approximate age in the Supergirl verse and that's how those details ended up mashed together to make a fourteen year old first year. Oops. Going forward let's imagine him as 11. I'm also correcting it in any previous chapters it's mentioned to make it so he's 11.

Thunder cracks almost an entire minute after lighting illuminates the darkening sky. Rain beats down against the windows like it has for the last hour. She’s about to send her owl and look out at the part of the Quidditch field visible from her office when she notices Kara and Carter in the doorway. They’re drenched and dripping water all over the floor.

“No lesson today, I take it?”

“Ten minutes in, it started to pour,” Kara answers.

Carter’s pouting like Cat hasn’t seen since he was eight. He looks adorable, even more so as he stands there soaked to the bone with water droplets falling from his wilted curls onto his nose. “If it wasn’t a storm, we could have kept at it, but no. There just had to be lightning.”

“One rained out practice isn’t going to stop your lessons all together,” Kara assures him. “It’s just one day. Not a big deal.”

“Maybe not to you.”

“Hey, of course, it means a lot to me to do this with you. If that wasn’t true, these lessons would have ended last month when you and your friends could have been seriously hurt.”

“It’s just not fair. I wanted to hang out with you, but the weather these last two weeks has made that almost impossible.”

“You…wanted to hang out with me? Not just for a lesson, but to actually…spend time with me?” Kara sounds unsure, but her eyes shine with hope and awe that nearly melts Cat like warm butter.

“Yeah,” he replies with a ‘duh’ tone of voice, “you’re the coolest person I know.”

Cat very obviously clears her throat and shoots him a pointed look.

“ _One_ of the coolest _people_ I know,” Carter amends.

Cat smiles, just a little proud of herself, until she sees Kara light up as though Carter has given the younger professor the world. She watches as Kara launches herself at Carter and hugs him. Carter surprisingly hugs back without hesitation. She slides further back in her chair and blinks a few times, quickly, while she tries to process what she’s seeing.

“Well, maybe we don’t always have to be in a lesson to hang out,” Kara offers as they pull away from each other.

“What other reason would we have to hang out without it being weird?”

Kara shrugs. “If it makes you uncomfortable or if you think your friends would make fun of you for it, you could always just tell them I was hanging out with your mom.”

Cat laughs. She can’t help it. It’s a short, hitch-pitched burst that startles everyone, including herself. She clears her throat again when Kara and Carter look at her, but it’s only to soothe her unexpectedly strained vocal cords that time. “Sorry,” she starts to explain with an amused smile. “I just doubt anyone would believe that.”

Kara looks wounded by the comment, but Carter rolls his eyes just like his mother.

Before either of them can say anything, Cat asks, “When have we ever spent time together without Carter around?”

“Just because you haven’t done it before doesn’t mean it wouldn’t _ever_ happen,” Carter says.

“Exactly,” Kara agrees. “Hate to offend you, but your son is much smarter than you.”

Carter laughs and leans a little closer to her.

Cat’s lips twitch with a hint of a smile, but her expression remains mostly unreadable beyond that. “Couldn’t be prouder of his amazing mind. My adorable Ravenclaw.”

Carter groans and it makes Cat smile again, even brighter.

Kara smiles, too, and then looks at her with the smile still warming the other blonde’s pinkening cheeks. Cat’s heart stutters.

“Yeah,” Carter drawls with heavy sarcasm. “No one would ever believe you two would want to be alone together.”

Cat sharply inhales and shifts in her chair as she takes that time to regain composure. She sits a little straighter then and suggests, “Maybe you should worry about warming up so neither of you catch a cold or pneumonia or hypothermia before coming up with your socially acceptable excuses.”

That thankfully gets them moving. Carter and Kara look at each other first and come to some sort of silent agreement before they walk toward the fireplace. Before they reach the hearth, Cat magically creates a crackling fire.

Kara peels off her robe as though it’s as light as a feather and not weighed down by the rain water and looks over at her. She’s still smiling, but it’s softer and there’s a glimmer in the girl’s eyes Cat wants to drown in and ignore at the same time. She fortunately does neither because Kara faces the fire again and then joins Carter on blanket-covered brick.

Emerald velvet, folded over to provide cushion as well as warmth, rests beneath the duo while they rub their hands and extend them toward the flames. Carter stays in his soaked coat for a few more seconds until it draws Kara’s attention. Kara doesn’t hesitate to remove it for him and he effortlessly complies. He even helps shrug it off after she tugs it down to his elbows. They work well together, silently and in sync, and Cat would envy Kara except she’s impressed at the ease with which the other woman bonds with her son.

Then, Carter shivers and Cat’s on her feet in an instant. She flicks her wand as quickly as she can blink and zaps an extra blanket from the closet into her waiting hand. She unfolds it while she slips her wand back into her robe pocket and then drapes it over Carter. She starts to fuss over it while Carter shifts under the blanket to reposition it on his shoulders and then Kara starts to lend a hand.

Carter grabs both sides of the sherpa throw and wraps it tightly around himself once Cat and Kara have pulled it more firmly onto him. He smiles at Cat and then at Kara before he burrows deeper into the blanket.

Cat stares at Kara and rubs Carter’s back to help him warm up faster. Kara notices within seconds and locks eyes with her, curious and questioning like she’s afraid she’s overstepped. She has, but Cat doesn’t need words to communicate that message. Kara looks chastised soon enough.

“Mom, stop making Kara feel bad,” Carter mumbles through the blanket. He doesn’t even see Cat’s expression, but he somehow just knows as though he has eyes in the back of his head.

Kara flashes the briefest of smiles, but continues to wither under Cat’s gaze until Cat sighs and exaggeratedly rolls her eyes. She takes pity on Kara, but still speaks mostly to Carter when she encourages, “Maybe when you’re a little more comfortable and a little less rained on, we could play Settlers of Catan?”

Carter smiles at her, but Cat’s attention snaps to Kara when she and Carter hear a gasp. Kara’s eyes are twice their usual size and the younger professor almost bounces through her evident excitement.

“I love Settlers of Catan,” Kara blurts out.

“Really?” Carter’s as stunned by the admission as Cat, but he’s the only of the two to show it.

Kara nods enthusiastically and Cat just knows, _knows_ , it’s the moment Kara becomes hers and Carter’s adopted stray puppy. Stray puppies rarely ever leave.

It becomes obvious and undeniable hours later when Kara and Carter, towel-dried and redressed in clean clothes, are bundled up under layers of blankets together in Cat’s private chambers. Beneath the blankets, Kara’s wearing an old sweatshirt that’s a little tight on her and a pair of yoga pants that fit like yoga capris. Cat’s generously offered them from her own wardrobe upon Carter’s pleading eyes and logical reasoning that Kara didn’t need to go all the way across the school to her own rooms to slip into a dry outfit before coming back to hang out in Cat’s.

She’s made worse decisions, but lending casualwear to the younger woman earns a spot on the short list of poor decisions. While neither fits Kara properly, they deter her darkening green eyes from looking elsewhere. That risky decision is followed closely by feeding Kara because the first rule is to never feed strays because they’ll linger. She’s failing in her attempt to keep Kara at arm’s length and, instead, allows Kara to sit next to Carter with their backs against the front of her couch.

‘Settlers’ sits off to one side on the coffee table after Carter’s victory while hot chocolate and cherished snacks monopolize the table space instead. They’re loaded up on sugar and bogged down by hearty soup when Kara tilts her head back and rests it on the edge of a cushion. She looks far too content with a smile on her face and her eyes glazed over like the food, and perhaps the company, are too good to leave. That’s how it starts with most strays, after all.

And like most strays, Kara’s dragged mud through Cat’s designated rooms, eaten Cat’s politely offered meal like she’s never seen food in her life, but she’s also a loyal friend to Carter beyond what even Olivia and Minerva have managed. It’s not ideal for someone who claims to want distance, but she also hasn’t found a way to stop it so far.

Just then, Carter cuts through her thoughts and brings Cat back into the present moment when he asks Kara, “So, I know you’re great at Quidditch, but…is there anything else you were really good at in school?”

Carter’s voice, soft and curious, commands attention in the otherwise quiet room. He fiddles with one of his blankets and only glances at Kara before he averts his eyes again. He’s never been shy around the other woman aside from the first minute of their first interaction, so it worries Cat to see him behaving nervously.

“Uh, well, I was decent with charms. I’m best with fire and unlocking spells. I can conjure things well enough, too, but aside from flying or for absolute emergencies I don’t really use magic.”

Cat’s intrigue, thankfully, goes unseen while Carter looks at her quizzically.

“Why not?” Carter asks.

“Because I don’t really need it. Flying and putting up protections around my rooms and belongings is the most I’ll do. Well, I do send my owl, too, but that’s really only to check in with my sister.”

“You have a sister?” Cat surprises them all when she asks the question.

“Um, yeah. S-she didn’t go to school here. She doesn’t have anything to do with the wizarding world except to talk to me about it. She lives in Edinburgh for work. She transferred there about a year ago.”

“Must be nice having family so close by,” Cat mindlessly muses.

“It is, but Alex is…a bit of a worrier. She’s overprotective of me and she wasn’t really thinking about her mom when she made the move. Eliza lives in the States.”

“You call your mom by her first name?”

“Carter,” Cat chastises. He’s confused and curious and still too much like her to keep from asking any and every question he can think of to get to the truth of a story, but it’s personal and rude and she needs to teach him boundaries.

“It’s okay,” Kara assures her with a flash of a warm smile and then looks at Carter again. “ _I’m_ okay with you asking questions like that. In the future, though, I think what your mom is trying to tell you is that not everyone likes an inquisitive mind picking theirs for answers.” Kara smiles again, like she’s laughing at her own joke, and it’s brighter and lasts longer. It even gets Carter to smile back, although he’s also blushing from embarrassment at the same time.

Carter nods his understanding and, soon after, Kara continues.

“Eliza is my foster mom.”

Cat instantly and instinctively places a hand over her stomach as though she’s been punched in the gut. It’s a revelation she never expected from Kara and what comes next is even more shocking.

“My parents…died in a fire,” the younger blonde slowly explains. The words take their toll on Kara before they even leave her mouth and the light from her smile and the glimmer in her eyes dull. “In the summer between my second and third year here there was an accident. Everything was just…gone. My home was destroyed. Everything, every _one_ , I loved was nothing but ash.”

Kara chokes on the last word and a tear trembles down her cheek. She hastily wipes it away, but shifts uncomfortably on the floor and looks more vulnerable than Cat’s ever seen her.

She hears a watery gasp that startles her out of her thoughts. When she focuses on what’s in front of her, she sees Carter’s arms wrapped tightly around Kara like he’ll never let go. His head is tucked under Kara’s chin with his cheek to the younger professor’s collarbone and his blankets, which used to cover his neck and shoulders, ruffled at his waist.

Kara’s slow to react, but she returns the embrace after a few long seconds and closes her eyes. Kara hugs him like she’ll never let go either and that’s when Cat knows she’s doomed.

“The Danvers took me in when I was almost thirteen,” Kara says, her voice less reedy as she speaks now. “It was hard at first. Alex took some time to warm up to me and I didn’t know any of them at all before I moved in, but they accepted me and allowed me to keep going to Hogwarts. After some time, it all worked out. I’m okay now and I got lucky. Not everyone can say they have a loving family, let alone _two_ in their lifetime.”

Cat certainly couldn’t. Not until Carter.

Carter finally pulls away and looks up at her, his eyes filled with unshed tears and inspiring light in them much like how Kara looks ninety percent of the time. “I’m sorry that ever happened to you, but I’m glad you found another home.”

Kara runs her fingers through his hair, his curls still unruly after air-drying, and it’s tender and sweet and exactly something Cat would do to soothe to him when he’s stressed or scared or nervous. “I’m glad, too. But enough about my tragic backstory. It’s getting late. You should probably go to bed soon.”

Carter scrunches up his face and pulls away from Kara a bit more. He turns to Cat and says, “On second thought, I don’t think it’ll be fun having two moms.”

Cat’s eyes almost pop of her head while her jaw drops as though it’s lost the hinge holding it shut. Carter, the ever-growing menace, grins at her and dashes off with a hurried, “Love you. Goodnight.”

He leaves Cat in the wreckage he’s created just to keep teasing her about something that’s not even a thing. She’ll send him a howler for that. See how much he likes it when he’s called out in front of his peers.

“What does he mean about ‘having two moms’?”

 Cat feels the question like ice in her veins and take a few seconds to think of a non-revealing answer. The only explanation that comes to mind is, “Aside from his father, he sees me with women. My relationships with those women are close and, for some reason, he likes to make a joke about how it’s like having two moms.”

Cat thinks it’s a smart and plausible answer, but Kara’s face says otherwise as she furrows her brow and takes a moment to consider it. Whatever alternative reasoning Kara’s constructing, the younger blonde either files it away for later or drops it completely because she eventually concedes with a nod and relaxes.

“It really is getting late,” Kara says several seconds of awkward silence later. “I should…probably get out of your hair.”

Kara smiles and stands up with at least two blankets wrapped around her that Cat can see. Between that and Kara’s comment about being in her hair, Cat suddenly pictures herself and Kara tangled up in blankets and each other with Kara’s hands in her hair. Dazed and rendered speechless by the fantasy, Cat almost doesn’t see Kara offer the blankets to her.

She hesitates, confused about Kara’s intention, until she understands the flying instructor means only to return them. Cat gives a forced, plastic smile after that while hoping she’s the only one of them that noticed her embarrassing delay.

“Thank you,” Kara says, and looks as timid as before with no signs of having the upper hand. Cat counts that as a win until, “I, um, had a good time tonight. Apart from reliving the lowest point of my time here as a student, this is…probably the most at home I’ve felt here.”

Cat feels unsteady after that confession. She’s never truly felt at home at Hogwarts except when she’s with Minerva or Olivia, the only people that make everything else about full-bloods and magical feuds bearable, but the heartbreaking kind of hope and longing she sees in Kara’s eyes tempts her to give the young woman a hug. She’s not a hugger by any means, only ever hugs her son or gets a little too handsy with Minerva after drinks, but someone with their whole life ahead of them should feel more warmth and vibrancy than Cat thinks maybe Kara’s ever known.

“Miss Grant?”

She blinks and realizes too late that she’s been drowning in blue eyes. “Sorry,” she says as she tries to smile her way out of another awkward moment with this woman. “I’m…glad you’re comfortable here. With us- with _Carter_.”

Kara blushes and looks down at her feet, which she scuffs along the floor but thankfully—and very fortunately for Kara’s sake—doesn’t leave a mark. “Y-yeah, he’s amazing.” There’s a breathlessness and toeing-the-line confidence about her when Kara’s eyes flick up to cautiously meet Cat’s gaze seconds later. Kara looks like she’s standing on the balls of her feet and on the verge of falling forward, falling into Cat.

It’s tempting, enthralling, intoxicating like bourbon’s never been and Cat’s helpless to do anything more than lick her lips while her eyes drop to Kara’s mouth. She immediately looks up again, but it’s too late to hide the lapse in judgement according to Kara’s doe-eyed expression.

 “I-I…really should go,” Kara stutters, and it’s adorable. It also feeds Cat’s ego, which almost always leads to more regrettable decisions.

“You could stay.” Regrettable decisions like that.

Kara gasps and then appears to stop breathing, utter disbelief on her face.

Instead of backtracking or having mercy on either Kara or herself, Cat adds, “As amazing as Carter is, he doesn’t drink alcohol.”

“Something he and I have in common,” Kara sheepishly admits.

Cat’s eyes widen and her usually unflappable demeanor is compromised by Kara yet again. “Then I guess a nightcap is out of the question. May I ask why you don’t drink?”

Kara shrugs and replies, “It’s a taste I’ve never acquired. My sister likes scotch, but that’s too strong for me. I tried beer once and it…it went badly.”

Cat scrunches her nose in disgust both out of sympathy and her own aversion to the swill. “Maybe a white wine? Have you ever tried that, or have you experimented enough to know it’s just not for you?”

“I haven’t…experimented a lot, actually.”

A rush of heat floods her and pools between her legs. Unintentional innuendo or not, she’s thinking about Kara trying all kinds of things for the first time. The imagery has a strong effect on her and it’s not entirely unpleasant despite the awkward timing of her arousal.

“I have some if you’d like to try it,” Cat uncontrollably purrs, and wants to kick herself for the slip.

Kara slowly inhales a few seconds later and Cat’s eyes fall below the other woman’s collarbone to watch her chest rise. “Okay,” Kara says, still breathless.

Cat feels relief, but it only lasts until she pours the first glass of mixed berry zinfandel. That’s when the regrettable decision suddenly makes her a little too vulnerable.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you read, there's a **trigger warning** spoiler you should know: mentions of child death and spousal abuse. All of which happened in the past and are only talked about briefly with very limited description.
> 
> HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Here's a gift from me to you that I hope you like. :)

She’s three glasses in by the time Kara starts her second and the younger blonde’s lips are curled into a bright smile Kara tries to contain. Instead, Kara giggles into her drink and takes a sip while Cat watches with interest over the rim of her own mug. Drinking white zin, for her, is like drinking water; it takes a while to have an effect. Kara’s effect on her, however, is instantaneous.

Kara sits cross-legged on the couch beneath just one blanket. The extra ones from earlier are either bunched up behind Kara or draped over the back of the couch and the one on her lap does little more to cover the younger woman’s legs than the very form-fitting, borrowed yoga pants Kara wears.

Cat has no excuse when she looks down a few too many times, but Kara’s smiles also garner her attention. She actually notices them more than Kara’s legs, although both look delicious. Her tongue slides over her bottom lip while her eyes trace Kara’s current smile before looking down again at tightly encased and effortlessly on display muscles. The blanket looks cozy and inviting the way it leaves plenty of room for wandering hands to roam across soft, toned thighs.

Kara leans over the next time she giggles and ends up resting her head on Cat’s shoulder. Kara hums soon after and starts to nestle into Cat’s side while her arm shifts between their bodies.

Cat doesn’t have time to process it before Kara’s hand finds her knee and the touch sends a jolt through her entire body. Kara’s hand is warm on her bare skin and the younger woman doesn’t even seem cognizant of the contact or how it makes Cat feel like she’s burning up from the inside. At least, that’s what she thinks until Kara hums again. It sounds more like a soft, low moan when hot breath puffs against her ear as Kara speaks seconds later. Cat can almost feel the vibration of Kara’s vocal cords with each word where the other blonde melts further into her side the longer they sit there.

“You have amazing skin,” Kara says with reverence. “And really soft hair. It’s nice.” As if to prove she means it, Kara reaches up and across Cat’s face with the hand not on Cat’s knee and runs it through short hair.

Kara’s fingers brush along Cat’s cheekbone before rubbing the tips of silky, champagne blonde hair between lithe fingers. After a few rolling motions, Kara’s fingers graze Cat’s jawline and steals the air from Cat’s lungs.

Cat closes her eyes as the sensation produces goosebumps on her arms and makes her chest tingle. When Kara’s hand glides down her neck and her nails gently scratch against her skin mid-descent, Cat gasps as she feels her blood rush below her hips in an intense wave of arousal and immediately opens her eyes. “I think you’ve reached your limit for the night.” Her voice sounds rough and obvious. Thankfully, Kara only responds with more giggles and a bubbly denial.

“I don’t think so,” Kara sing-songs.

She can hear the smile she knows Kara’s brightly displaying just as easily as she can feel the curl of soft lips against her neck. Cat tips back her drink for a hearty gulp and tugs on the hem of her pencil skirt that’s already been a problem once today due to the wet and gloomy weather. The movement jostles Kara just enough to encourage the younger woman to give Cat some space, but Kara’s hand remains rooted to Cat’s knee. When she looks at Kara seconds later, she’s able to see a deepening blush and widening smile as Kara gives her full attention to Cat’s legs.

“I think you’re the one that’s reached their limit,” Kara says. “You must be drunk if you think wearing skirts this late into the fall is a good idea. It’s cold and rainy out there. I’m surprised you’re not covered in mud!”

Kara snaps her head up and looks directly at Cat then. The woman’s eyes widen comically as a new thought seems to pop into the younger professor’s mind, and whatever it is darkens those ocean blue eyes. Her lips curl into a happily guilty smile before she licks her lips and then takes another sip of her wine. Kara sets the glass down on the coffee table, moves her hand off Cat’s knee and turns toward Cat on the couch. Kara places her elbow on one of the back cushions and cradles her head in her hand. Then, Kara tests boundaries.

The flying instructor drapes an arm over her own lap and pushes the hand that previously caressed Cat’s neck toward the older woman’s outer thigh. Kara strokes between her knee and the hem of her dress with a gentle touch of knuckles, up and down.

Cat’s breath hitches. She squeezes her legs together and then moves away. Not far. Kara’s still within touching distance, but the stroking stops. Kara’s hand falls limp between them on the couch and, although she doesn’t make another move, she smiles again. So many smiles—her natural expression—but these are as shy as they are bright.

Cat shivers, which easily proves to herself and Kara that she really did make a poor choice in outfit, and sets her glass on the end table next to the couch. As she’s rubbing her hands over her lap, Kara wordlessly offers the blanket draped over the back of the couch. Instead of just holding it out to her, though, Kara lays it on her and adjusts it to cover her exposed skin. Goosebumps rise beneath the immensely cozy blanket for more reasons than just the change in temperature. She clears her throat and rubs her bare arms. She’s not cold, not after the touches and extra warmth provided by Kara’s sunnier than usual disposition and the blanket on her lap, but she needs to do something with her hands.

Kara rewards her nervous habit by lifting the blanket that barely keeps the younger woman warm and sliding it around her back before wrapping half of it around Cat as well. Bundled up like that, they’re sitting close enough to touch again.

Cat feels the material of her lent out yoga pants brush against her thigh when Kara’s knee knocks against hers. She doesn’t outwardly react that time, the touch too quick to make a lasting impact, but she visually acknowledges it for the same amount of time the contact occurs.

“You were right about the wine,” Kara says.

Unprepared for more conversation, it surprises Cat.

“I’m right about most things,” she replies with only half of her usual boldness.

“I like wine. I like this wine. It’s good. Sweet. Like me.”

Cat laughs and clings tighter to the shared blanket.

“I’ll have to build up my tolerance, though, because when we do this again I want to be able to enjoy it longer.”

“An hour and a half wasn’t enough?” Cat smirks and doesn’t filter her next thought, but at least mumbles it. “Aren’t you insatiable?”

Somehow, Kara hears her anyway and the cute and sunny demeanor shifts into tipsy confidence. “I can never have just one of anything,” the younger professor admits with a smoldering voice that sets Cat on fire. “Potstickers, chocolate, glasses, orga—”

Cat’s breath hitches.

“—nic fruits.” Kara grins like she’s won, like she’s finally found Cat’s weak spot, and Cat’s inclined to agree at this point. “Haven’t you heard, Miss Grant? One is the loneliest number.”

Cat’s eyes flit about Kara’s face and never venture lower than plump lips. A moment later, she finds her raspy voice and confirms, “I’ve heard it and lived it.”

Kara frowns and Cat thinks it’s as cute as it is terrible that anything could negatively affect this woman. “You’ve lived it? How?”

Cat chuckles, half-deprecatingly and half-amused in the face of Kara’s slight inebriation, and sets her own drink on the end table beside the couch. She spins the glass around and watches it with more focus than necessary before confessing, “I’ve been a single mom for all of Carter’s life.”

“But Olivia…”

“Has been happily married to someone else his whole life. We’re friends with almost benefits, Kara. Sometimes seeing her hurts more than it should.”

“Because you’re not over her?”

“No, it’s not that.” Cat sighs and lets go of her glass. She fiddles with her hands in her lap when she goes on to say, “No one’s ever gotten as close to me as she has. No one’s ever really wanted to and, after a while, I didn’t let them.”

Cat almost doesn’t notice how Kara shifts closer when the younger professor asks, “Not even Minerva?”

“Different kind of close. They’re...they’re my only friends. Pathetic as that is—”

“It’s not pathetic,” Kara quickly argues, and her hand returns to Cat’s knee. That’s when the older blonde feels as much as she sees the small space Kara’s recently closed between them. Kara’s knee all but wedges her hand between it and Cat’s leg. “My sister is my only friend. Well, my only friend who’s not currently a student.”

“Not Neville Longbottom? You two seemed to hit it off at dinner the first night.”

Kara hums like she meant to laugh but was too tired to make the extra effort and answers, “We’re work friends. He’s a good guy and he’s nice and he has plenty of fun stories to keep anyone he shares them with entertained, but he doesn’t know I have a sister. He doesn’t know anything personal about me.”

“Is there anything more personal than knowing about your sister?”

“Lots of things. My favorite color is blue, I haven’t dated anyone since the last Quidditch match I ever played three years ago and I think I don’t like guys as much as I thought. Kind of like how I feel about cheese.”

Laughter abruptly and uncontrollably erupts out of Cat. She doubles over while clutching the arm of the couch with one hand and unwittingly holding Kara’s wrist with the other. When she calms down, she wipes the tears from her eyes and looks at Kara to see the woman staring at her with undeniable awe. It has a very sobering effect, not that she really needed it with her high alcohol tolerance. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” 

“Your laugh,” Kara easily answers. 

“Do I sound like a troll?”

“No. Definitely not,” Kara tells her while shaking her head. “You should laugh more. It sounds as beautiful as you look, how you always look.”

“I’m always beautiful?” She’s not surprised. A few students have had crushes on her over the years and she’s been complimented, mostly for her appearance, more often than not by other faculty and people in the muggle world as well. So, she teases Kara like the former seeker is just another one of them. Except she’s not.

“You know you are. You flaunt it.” Kara says it so simply, so matter-of-factly, and smiles again. “More people should fall at your feet in response to that confidence.”

“Mm, I’m sure that has to do with people losing interest as soon as they hear me talk. Most of the time I’m either giving orders or punishments and that’s not much of a turn on.”

Kara snorts with laughter as she blurts out, “Speak for yourself.” 

Cat expects Kara to widen her eyes in shock, but Kara surprises her when she looks resolute in her statement. Kara’s eyes aren’t even glazed over and her pupils aren’t blown like Cat expects to see after the extra bubbly behavior Kara’s exhibited. “That wasn’t a confession inspired by liquid courage?”

“I’m not a lightweight, Cat. I’m just having a good time.”

Cat clears her throat and averts her eyes for a moment. She glances at Kara a few times before she finds the strength to maintain eye contact long enough to admit, “I am, too.”

Kara immediately lights up with glowing smile. “Good. Maybe we can do this again.”

“Maybe,” Cat slowly replies with a hint of a grin that she suppressed from splitting clear across her face.

“And maybe Carter won’t be the only Grant to get a flying lesson from me,” Kara hedges.

Cat scoff-laughs. “You really think I need lessons?”

“You have great form,” Kara says as she sweeps her eyes over Cat’s body in an appreciative way that increases Cat’s body temperature while keeping her feeling comfortable; enough so that her grin spreads. “And the way you mounted your broom off that window ledge was impressive. I could teach you a few tricks, though.”

“I’m sure,” Cat effortlessly purrs. She doesn’t show the shock she feels, at least not in her expression. She feels her face and chest heat up from embarrassment, though, and hopes it doesn’t redden her fair skin and expose her. To ensure that, even if Kara catches that reaction, Cat shifts as though to sit closer to the armrest and away from the younger woman. Instead, she stands up and gracelessly tugs on her hiked up skirt.

When she turns to grab her drink from the end table, Cat feels Kara’s eyes on her and looks over for confirmation. Proof comes from Kara’s lingering gaze on Cat’s ass. Cat smirks to herself just as the other woman snaps her head up and locks eyes with the Head of Slytherin.

Kara’s eyes widen and her cheeks go pink as she looks away and runs a hand up and down her arm.

“Still only having a good time, or will you finally admit you really are a lightweight?” Cat maintains her smirk while she asks that question.

Kara squints at her in response, but the other woman’s also smiling. “Ask your dear friend McGonagall about what she caught me doing with Lucy Lane my spring semester in sixth year and then ask yourself if a lightweight could handle that?”

Cat feels heat sink low in her belly, thinks it even travels farther south than that, and arches a curious brow. She focuses on Kara’s shining eyes and bright smile to tame her sudden arousal because only dangerous things would come from acknowledging it.

She clears her throat and tells Kara, “Something you did with Baby Lane years ago doesn’t mean you aren’t a lightweight now. But why don’t you tell me what Minerva saw?”

Kara chuckles. “As much fun as it’d be to tell you scandalous pieces of information, it’s not what you think.”

“What do I think?”

“That we were caught in the act, fooling around like you and Olivia. I told you I haven’t experimented a lot.”

Cat tips back the last of her drink and lowers herself onto the coffee table in front of the couch. It’s much safer to have a little space between them. “So what happened?”

“We smuggled in about five bottles of vodka. Actually, four bottles and one of tequila.”

“How much did you drink before Minerva found you?”

“All of the tequila and a bottle and a half of the vodka.”

“Mm, you know what they say about tequila.”

“Contrary to that belief, neither of our clothes fell off. How about the times you and ‘Liv’ had your secret rendezvouses with a few drinks?”

Cat considers not answering and even tilts her head to one side while she hesitates. “It never went that far when we drank. Sloppy or intense kisses and maybe some under the shirt action. Never sex.”

“So, you’ve never had drunk sex?”

“That’s not what I said,” Cat corrects her with a grin. “I never had drunk sex with her.”

“Other women then?” When Cat doesn’t answer, Kara amends, “Men? Your ex-husbands?”

Cat stiffens and looks around Kara but not at her for the next few seconds. She sucks in a breath and confesses, “Sometimes with my first husband, but I also drank a lot more back then.” She meets Kara’s eyes again and wishes she’d waited a little longer to do so because Kara’s frowning. “What’s that look?”

“Why did you drink more? Just...with him or...or it escalated beyond the thrill of trying not to get caught on school grounds?”

Cat rolls the hem of their shared blanket between her thumb and index finger. 

“I'm sorry,” Kara says. “I shouldn't have asked. It's none of my business.”

Cat takes a breath and replies, “No, it's...it's alright. It's been a long time since those days and I left that husband and the next two after him.”

Kara nods, but doesn't say anything. To Cat, it looks like she doesn't know how to proceed. Cat doesn't let her suffer for long.

“I...lost someone, too. Years ago. It- It nearly broke me. And I’d started to depend on alcohol as an escape from it. Of course, it only lasted until the hangover and that only piled on to the pain.”

Cat twirls the glass around on the end table like a nervous habit just to give herself something else to focus on, something to do. 

“Cat,” the younger woman interrupts with a cracked voice that splits one syllable into two. “I'm sorry.”

Cat shakes her head and half-shrugs. “It’s not your fault.”

“I… Would it be okay if I ask who you lost?”

She licks her lips and hears herself swallow. It hurts. Her throat feels too dry and incapable of swallowing, so doing it makes a relatively loud sound in the otherwise quiet room. Cat’s voice cracks like Kara’s only a moment before when she eventually answers, “My son.”

Cat almost doesn’t look over at Kara, too afraid of what she’ll find in those deep blue eyes, but she takes that chance. Immediately, she sees sadness and confusion. 

“Your—” 

“I had another son before Carter,” she explains. “He died—” she sucks in a sharp breath, “He was killed when he was nine.”

Cat feels Kara rest a hand over her own before she even processes movement out of the corner of her eyes. She’s looking ahead as she speaks, zoning out a little as she shares her own painful past, but she turns to Kara and releases a short and quick breath. She doesn’t see confusion in Kara’s eyes anymore, but there’s an abundance of compassion that pulls Cat closer like a magnet. She maintains the little bit of space between them but slips her hand into Kara’s and laces their fingers.

“What was his name?” Kara speaks almost too quietly to hear with a choked-up raspiness. 

Cat slowly and deeply inhales. She squeezes Kara’s hand for just a second and answers, “Adam.”

Kara flashes a watery, sad smile with tears brimming in her eyes. “You don’t talk about him, do you?” It’s not a question, at least Kara doesn’t pose it as one. “I’m sure he was an amazing boy...and would have grown into an incredible man. It’s impossible not to with you as his mother.”

“You’re half-right. He was and would have been incredible, but not because of me. I proved that by failing him. If I hadn’t—” she stops herself abruptly and sighs. “Losing Adam...is the reason I’m so overprotective with Carter. Thankfully, Carter doesn’t hate me for it. He’s annoyed sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade that for him being safe.”

“Does...does Carter know about him?”

“I- I told him two years ago. I felt like I had to. I was a mess almost every time I looked at him because he was the same age as Adam when…” she doesn’t finish her sentence. Instead, “On the...anniversary of Adam’s death that year, I broke down. Carter saw the whole thing. He was so sweet and so scared because he didn’t understand. So, I told him enough. I told him Adam was unfortunately the big brother he never got to know. I didn’t tell him how it happened. Just that...he died before Carter was born.”

“Have you talked about it since then?”

“Not to Carter. He sometimes asks about what Adam liked, if he got into trouble a lot and, when Carter got accepted to Hogwarts, he asked if Adam had magic like him.”

“Did you ever talk to anyone about it before that? Have you- Merlin’s beard, this is too much. I’m prying. I’m sorry. Just ignore me.”

Tears still in her eyes and sadly feeling the loss of Kara’s hand on hers, Cat chuckles. “I can’t believe you just said ‘Merlin’s beard’ at a time like this.”

Kara’s eyes pop wide open. The flying instructor stares at Cat like she wishes the Earth would swallow her whole. Dramatically, Kara claps a hand over her mouth and mumbles into it, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I needed to laugh. This is why I don’t talk about it. As I’m sure you don’t talk about your parents.”

Kara drops her hand in to her lap and quietly admits, “Hardly ever. But I do talk about them. Sometimes. I talk about the good stuff. I don’t usually tell people how they died.”

“Because it’s easier, right? Not telling people the one thing about yourself that kills you just a little bit quicker than mortality every time you think about it?”

Cat feels like her heart’s in a vice grip when she locks eyes with Kara. The younger woman looks at her with so much hurt and understanding mixed with a hint of reverence; like Cat’s solved the puzzle Kara’s been trying to solve for half her life.

“Yes,” Kara continues to speak quietly. “Yes, it’s...exactly that. But...talking about it helps sometimes. With the right people and under the right circumstances.”

“Minerva knows my history. I also chose to confide in wine and tequila at the time. I was already using them as a crutch before it happened. I didn’t feel the need to do anything else.”

“You don’t seem like a tequila woman.”

Cat smirks. “I’m not, but I bought bottles of whatever would get me drunk the fastest and was also cheap. Not just because I didn’t have a lot of money back then. I still don’t have a whole lot now. But, when you’re buying enough alcohol to drown an elephant, you don’t want to splurge on bourbon and waste it on hitting rock bottom.”

Kara gulps like she’s afraid to proceed, but she still asks, “And now?”

“Now, I sip and savor that pricey bourbon just enough to take very little of the edge off. It’s not at all like it was after Adam. Part of the reason I drank before he died was because my first husband was abusive, but I couldn’t support Adam without both our incomes. He wasn’t usually physical and he never hurt Adam. So, I stayed.”

“Cat, that’s- I can’t even imagine.” Kara’s soft and almost pleading eyes stare at her with an intensity that makes Cat squirm. Then, Kara takes Cat’s hand in both of hers and pulls it into her lap. The younger blonde starts to trace Cat’s knuckles and fingers with the lightest touch to ever set ablaze the Queen of All Slytherin. “I only wish I could send a bludger after everyone who’s hurt you.”

Cat licks her lips while her hand still holds Kara’s attention, but the sudden rise of her chest as she gasps, stunned by the woman’s steely words, redirects Kara’s focus in seconds.

Kara meets her gaze with a fiery determination that does more than tug at Cat’s heartstrings. It tugs at Cat. 

She leans in, slowly but with intention, and only looks away from powerful blue eyes to stare at rose-petal lips. Cat wonders for a moment how Kara would taste before her eyes travel upward again and map out the swell of her high cheekbones before roving to the cut of her jawline. She’s not close enough to brush lips or bump noses when she realizes two things. First, Kara’s fingers move from her hand and slide over her wrist and up her arm, leaving behind a trail of goosebumps. While Cat arches her back as a wave of tingles passes across her chest, she knows they can’t do this. That’s the second thing.

Cat glances up at Kara as she shifts away a little abruptly and clears her throat. She feels the other woman’s fingers stop, followed by Kara turning ever so slightly away from her. Their knees knock and Kara keeps a hand entwined with Cat’s, but the other one falls into the pie-shaped space between them on the couch.

When she feels strong enough, Cat says, “It was a long time ago. There were a lot of years between losing Adam and gaining Carter, but I can happily say it took less than a year after Adam to leave his father. I still relied too much on alcohol, but I wasn’t allowing some man to tell me how worthless I was even as he continued to take whatever he could get from me.

“So, while I appreciate the gesture, I dug myself out of that hell. Just like you still managed to come back to Hogwarts every year after your parents’ deaths and excelled while also making a new home for yourself with your second family.” 

“That may be true, but you’re far more incredible than I’ll ever be.”

“Not likely...Supergirl.”

“I thought that was a one time thing.”

“I think it has a nice ring to it.”

Kara flashes a smile and says, “I agree...Miss Grant.”

Cat smirks. It fades almost as quickly as she’d formed it, but she’s not upset or uncomfortable when she says, “It’s getting late and I’ve monopolized most, if not all, of your evening.”

“I spent my night exactly where I wanted to be,” Kara tells her, still smiling. 

Cat resists the urge to swoon, at least not openly, but she still feels her emotions rise like a tidal wave approaching the shore. “Doubtful, but thank you.”

“You don’t have to believe me,” Kara says as she stands. Cat stands with her and their blankets pool together on the couch. “But it’s true. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to be friends with more than one Grant.”

Cat rolls her eyes.

Kara breathes out a soft, cute laugh and taps Cat’s wrist a couple times before she wraps her hand around it and pulls Cat to her. They’re hugging before Cat can exhale. “Next time, we should do a whole taste test. Red, white, whatever you got.”

“You must be insane to want to spend more time with me after tonight.”

“I could very well be insane, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with that.” Kara pulls away, but she keeps her hand around Cat’s wrist just a little longer. “I’ll see you later. Maybe I’ll even give you another opportunity to use me for a lesson.”

“But how could I ever top transforming you into a Thunderbird?” She’s joking, her tone light and teasing as she manages a faint smile.

“You might not be a Ravenclaw, but Carter gets his brilliance from you. I have absolute faith you’ll think of something.” With a bright smile, Kara slowly parts from her and makes her way to the door. “Thanks for the blankets. And the drinks.” The younger blonde looks over her shoulder more often than she watches where she’s going and Kara almost walks right into the doorframe because of it.

Cat lets out a little sound of surprise and warning before she can stop herself, but she manages to laugh into a hand she positions over her mouth only a second later. She laughs because Kara stumbles away from the door with embarrassed laughter and gangly looking limbs as she flails and motions to the door frame and the space around herself.

“That was…” Kara laughs again as she looks between the door and Cat. “Who put that there?”

Cat drops her hand and almost laughs hysterically. She knows Kara can tell she wants to and that seems to bring out the sunniest Sunny Danvers expression to date. “Be careful on the staircases. I’m worried you’ll be the one to trip and fall tonight.”

“I’ll send my owl to let you know I made it to my rooms safely,” Kara offers.

“Mm.” Cat draws out the hum as she considers her next words carefully. “See that you do.”

Cat thinks she sees a blush spread across Kara’s cheeks, even from across the room, and watches with a pleased expression as Kara awkwardly and adorably leaves. And then she scoffs at herself for thinking of Kara as adorable, especially after she’d already associated the word cute with the other woman twice in just that evening alone. 

She grabs her glass from the end table and lifts it to her mouth to finish it off, but she pauses before the rim touches her lips. Slowly, she pulls the drink away and stares down at it for a moment before sighing and lowering it to her side. She turns and takes Kara’s glass off the coffee table and promptly dumps out both drinks in the sink without a second thought.

**Author's Note:**

> The original prompt: Hogwarts AU. Cat is transfiguration professor and Slytherin head of house. Bonus for a love potion gone awry. Could be side characters like Mon-El makes it for Kara and Winn takes it instead.
> 
> Fic title comes from the song Heart by Sleeping at Last.


End file.
